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This report reviews the use of loans for learning in 33 European countries and analyses the schemes in eight selected Member States: France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Finland, Sweden and the UK. The analysis shows that loan schemes vary considerably across Europe in terms of types and levels of learning covered, conditions of access, repayment and governance. Some loans aim to increase participation in learning in general, while others are designed to promote equity. The report attempts to assess the selected loans and discusses their strengths and weaknesses and determinants of performance, while considering if a given scheme operates on a large scale or targets niche groups. The evaluation results provide a basis for identifying good practice principles for designing and implementing loans. Policy recommendations are formulated based on these findings. Annexed are: (1) Methodology; (2) Key terms and definitions; (3) Information on countries/schemes selected for in-depth analysis; (4) Proposed typologies of VET loan schemes; (5) Tables and figures; (6) Tosmana truth tables; (7) Questionnaires; (8) Basic characteristics of non-European loan schemes. (Contains 37 tables, 5 figures, 20 boxes and 33 footnotes.)

This handbook is an introduction to Lisbon Agenda and it is presented as a basis for ESIB's (The National Unions of Students in Europe) concerted work on the European Union's all-embracing strategy that is changing the parameters of the education systems. The reason for the existence of this handbook is the necessity to coordinate the work on all levels in order to strengthen the students' voice in the EU Lisbon Agenda. In order to facilitate the reading of this handbook, an overview of the chapters is presented. Chapters 2 and 3 offer an overview of the Lisbon Agenda, and answer the questions "What is Lisbon? And what does education have to do with it?". Those chapters explain why the EU started the Lisbon Strategy, how it works and which priorities the EU has set for higher education. Chapter 4 provides a picture of Lisbon that will be more familiar to readers: It gives examples of the implementation of Lisbon in four European countries, both in the EU and not. Chapter 5 is an overview of the different stakeholders relevant to education within the Lisbon Agenda. In this chapter one finds an assessment of those stakeholders' strategies, and some hints as to how to go about building alliances. Chapter 6 deals with ESIB's strategy towards Lisbon. It is based on the discussions at the Vienna European Student Convention and following ESIB seminars, and addresses the necessary fields of further work and action. Appended are: (1) Policy paper on the EU Lisbon agenda; (2) EU-documents--where to find them?; (3) Bibliography; (4) Footnotes; (5) Authors; (6) Abbreviations; and (7) Glossary. (Contains 7 footnotes.)